Dial-up holdouts ask: Why go to broadband?

Fred Goodwin, CMA · 2007-09-04T18:29:40+00:00

Dial-up holdouts ask: Why go to broadband? don't see the need for broadband12:00 AM CDT on Tuesday, September 4, 2007By ANDREW D. SMITH / The Dallas Morning NewsSome announce their position and explain why it's smart. Others blushwhen relatives mockingly raise the topic. But neither type expects toupgrade from dial-up to broadband Internet - ever.Analysts who monitor such holdouts closer than investors monitor BenBernanke say most dial-up users are kidding themselves. BroadbandInternet has spread faster than did telephones, radio or television,and it will eventually become as common as any of them.Pundits, meanwhile, ponder whether holdouts hurt the national economyand debate what our impatience with dial-up says about us."Nearly 75 years elapsed between the invention of the telephone andanything approaching universal adoption. Broadband Internet hasreached half the nation's homes in less than a decade," said JimMurphy, AT&T Corp.'s executive director for retail DSL."If you keep this history in mind, it's really not surprising that westill have holdouts. It's only surprising that so many of us aresurprised."I'm not surprised, though, because I've lived it - my father-in-lawwas a holdout until a few months ago.AT&T research reveals much about holdouts, some expected, somesurprising.Holdout demographics do, of course, skew older and lower-income. Manyholdouts retired before fast Internet hit offices. Working holdoutsrarely use the Internet in the office.In these days of $10 dial-up and $15 DSL, the actual costs rarelyprevent upgrades. In fact, people with a second phone line for dial-upInternet can actually save by switching.But some holdouts don't know that broadband is so cheap because theynever bother to investigate.Others know they can afford to upgrade but don't see the need. Thisgroup rarely goes online and sticks mostly to e-mail. And some membersof the club take pride in denying themselves anything as frivolous asfast Internet."I just don't need it." "I don't...

Sep 04, 2007 61 Replies

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Ken Whiton 18 years ago

*-* On Thu, 20 Sep 2007 19:07:00 -0700, *-* In Article 46f32745$0$18982$ snipped-for-privacy@roadrunner.com, *-* $Bill wrote *-* About Re: Dial-up holdouts ask: Why go to broadband?

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Just keep them away from strong magnets. ;-)

Ken Whiton

FIDO: 1:132/152 InterNet: snipped-for-privacy@surfglobal.net.INVAL (remove the obvious to reply)

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